Shri Ganesha Puja. “We Must Respect the Mother Earth,” Cabella (Italy), 25 September 1999. Today we have gathered here to worship Shri Ganesha. You all know what a powerful Deity He is. His power comes from His innocence. When we see small children, we’re automatically compelled towards them and also we want to love them, kiss them, and [have them] be with us. And very innocent they are, extremely innocent. And when we worship Shri Ganesh, we have to know if we have been really innocent or not. These days people have become extremely cunning and they don’t mind any amount of cunning. They play all kinds of cunning games on others who are innocent and simple. They can justify themselves always, that whatever they are doing is the right thing in these modern times when everybody is so cunning. This cunningness can take you to the other extreme of right side, which is very much punishable, in the sense that some people develop all kinds of problems which are physical, you can say. Like, their hands can get paralyzed or their leg can get paralyzed. Also they can have other troubles with their liver treatments and all that. All this comes up. Then to punish them, a disease of a psychosomatic nature might set in. At this time, when you have these problems, all such people who suffer from the right side should worship Shri Ganesh. For example, these days the life is very, very much busy with all of you. You are extremely busy with your work and you are doing extra work, I should say, than normal. But you think you are doing a very great job about it. As a result, Shri Ganesha is neglected, and such a man can become either very dry or very self-indulgent. One of the two things comes up and he does not know where he is going. The only thing that keeps you in the middle, in Sahaja Yoga, is Shri Ganesha’s puja, Shri Ganesha’s worship, by which you can always be in the centre. All these diseases of the right side can be cured by Shri Ganesha’s puja. Now there are various ways people worship Shri Ganesha, but there’s only a simple way: is to remember Him and sit before His photograph and take vibrations from Him. That’s the best way you can balance yourself. There are so many worries, there are so many struggles you have—all this can be neutralized by Shri Ganesh. He’s, though innocent, He is extremely clever, and when He comes to your help, you are amazed how He works it out and how He removes all the hurdles and all the worries from you. So this is the most important Deity we have. Though it’s a very simple Deity, the Mooladhara Chakra is very, very complicated. It’s one of the most complicated chakras, I think, because it has many waves, it has many compartments, we can say, which all the time are vibrating and oscillating. So to steady down these, you should try to be absolutely dedicated to Shri Ganesh. Shri Ganesha, as I have told you, was incarnated as Jesus Christ, and Jesus was also a very innocent person. If He was not innocent, He would not have been crucified. But He was not a cunning fellow to see the cunning of others. His own disciple deceived him and still, [though] He knew who it was, He never said who it was. If you see His life, it’s full of innocent beauty. He is such a simple-hearted personality, He is such a good personality, and wherever He saw anything wrong done, He used to go all out to fight it. Same with Shri Ganesh. Shri Ganesha’s blessings are very important for all the people who are especially prone to some sort of a hurdle or sankata, as they call it. He’s called as Sankata Vimochan: the one who takes you out of all the hurdles of life. So many of you have experienced how He has helped you in different troubles and hurdles and also different types of very, very difficult times. It is His style that He manages things so well because He is a Ganapati. “Ganapati” means the one who is the Lord of the Ganas. As I have told you, ganas exist within us, very nicely settled down as these bodies – small, small bodies – who report, if there is any problem, they report to the brain that there is a problem. And on the sternum bone is the residence, or we can say is the throne of the Goddess Durga. So whenever there is any problem, we are found into some trouble, the sternum bone starts vibrating and these bodies, which are ganas, get the information. “Antibodies” they are called in the medical terminology. Then these ganas attack. They can target also. They know how to target the trouble and attack it. One may think that only the people who are suffering medically are helped by ganas – is not true. Also the people who are mentally upset, who are mentally suffering are also helped by the ganas. These ganas are so good at targeting their problems that sometimes one is surprised how things have worked out. For example, say something happens to someone, some child, somewhere: now, his parents start crying for Mother and the Mother is the Durga, say, then what happens [is] that they immediately rush to that place. And miraculously they cure the boy, miraculously they save him. So many miraculous things that have happened in your lives you cannot explain, but they are all due to this Ganapati’s ganas. They are also small like Him and they are very active and very alert. They never sleep. Any time there is any trouble, these Ganas will go and attack the problem and find out the solution for him. It is something unbelievable how they act and how they inform. I can give you so many examples that have happened like this. For example, there was a boy who got drowned in one of our ashrams in America, in the swimming pool. These were all jumping for the swimming pool. I didn’t like the idea of a swimming pool very much because there were children there. So one boy fell down into that and was inside for about fifteen to twenty minutes. Nobody knew he was there. So then they tried to find out the body of the boy, and then they found out he was not there: “Where is he gone?” Then they discovered that he was in that swimming pool. After that, they got so frightened and they said, “We just prayed to you Mother, that: ‘Save this boy.’” Surprisingly, I never telephone to any ashram. I didn’t know even the address. But I asked to telephone to this number, on my own. I don’t know anybody’s numbers. And when I telephoned – see, one of the leaders came there and I told him, “I know the boy has fallen into the water and he will be saved.” Nobody had told Me anything. “Don’t worry he’ll be perfectly all right.” Then they brought out the boy and he was treated by the doctors also, but also with vibrations. And today that boy is perfectly all right, while the doctors had said, “He can never survive. If there is one chance of his surviving, he’ll be like a dead body, in a coma all the time.” This boy, I have met him this time [when] I went to America. So, like this, so many things happen and people tell Me that Mother it’s Your kripa, Your blessings, that this has happened. In a way, it is very distantly, I should say, but because of Shri Ganesha. Now another quality of Shri Ganesha’s is that [He is] extremely obedient to Mother. He does not recognize even Shiva, Vishnu, anyone. To Him, His Mother is everything. So He can fight with His Father, Shiva, He can fight with anyone because to Him is complete obedience and absolutely quick tatpar (तत्पर ). Just quickly He understands what is the desire of the Mother and He works it out. His style is otherwise very innocent, simple, childlike; but His work is tremendous. Now these ganas are also very innocent people, very innocent. But when told that: you have to attend to a particular problem, they are extremely quick and they are very fast. Another thing with Him is that He respects people who are chaste, who have chastity as the prime thing in their life. Chastity is very much worshipped by Him. It’s not only in women but also in men, He expects chastity to be present. After getting realization, you should be absolutely chaste people. You shouldn’t have your eyes roving around everywhere and what you can call a very bad method of communicating with young women and young men and spoiling your chastity. Even your eyes should be clean. Even your thoughts should be clean. For that, you should introspect and see for yourself what mistakes you are committing and what kind of an unchaste behaviour you have. You have to correct yourself and ask Shri Ganesh to forgive you. If you ask for forgiveness, He can forgive anything. He is so innocent and beautiful that He forgives. But that is a very important thing. Our whole morality depends on our idea of chastity. We should be very chaste. So many religions have come and they have talked about chastity. But religions have become so useless now, have become without any basis, without any proper execution of what is written for them. They do all kinds of things and they call themselves Hindus, Muslims, Christians – all kinds of religions. Actually the religions have failed completely and that’s why Shri Ganesha gets after them. Another thing about Shri Ganesh is that He is created out of the Mother Earth. He is absolutely created out of the Mother Earth. So if He doesn’t like people of some country who are doing black magic, or who are doing fundamentalism and where people are also having very bad morals, He creates problems for them. What happens [is] that He tells the Mother Earth to create the earthquakes. An earthquake takes place in places where there is no respect of chastity, also where there are fundamentalists, and also where there are people who are worshipping the black magic. This kind of people are attacked by Him through his Mother. So the Mother Earth also understands. Now we have so many earthquakes – one in Turkey you know, one in Taiwan – but not a single Sahaja Yogi has died. So He protects them. He has discrimination. And only such people who are of this kind, He tries to destroy them. And He has destroyed many like this, even before. Also, the Mother Earth’s powers He has got is that He is magnetic. He attracts people towards himself. People take to Him very easily as we take to children very easily. So that is the magnetic power that He has got within himself. Now, you will be surprised [that] this magnet exists also in the birds, also in many animals, but especially in the birds. That’s how they can follow the direction where they have to go. They are flying from, say, Siberia all the way to Australia. How do they fly and again they come back to the same [place]? It also is in the fishes. Fishes also are found, say, in the waters which are coming from some hills. So they come to the plains for some time and again, God knows how, they go back to their own place. So going back to their own place is only possible if there’s a way of knowing the direction. But they know the direction, they have a sense of direction. Also, they are bound by their own qualities. For example, a snake will be a snake, a dog will be a dog, and a lion will be a lion. But human beings have, perhaps, all the animals within them. So they could be anything, you can’t say, and they are too cunning to admit that they can be anything. And once they become anything like that, you are amazed how these people can be of such a low level when they are human beings. But it is so because Ganesha has not been respected in their lives. So they can go to any level, any place. Another example I’ll give you: a very big earthquake we had in India, in Latur. In Latur, this was the fourteenth day of Shri Ganesha where they take Shri Ganesha and put it in the sea or in the water of a river. So there in Latur, these people have been having a nice statue of Shri Ganesha. Before the statue, they dance. And they have now started playing very dirty, very bad, very, very bad music from some very funny films or something. It’s so bad that you just can’t bear it – very bad – and that upsets Shri Ganesha. So, like that, they were doing to this one statue that they had and they were dancing before it. But when they put the statue in the water, they came back home and they got drunk, and when they got drunk, they started dancing with that drinking and saying, “Jay Ganesh! Jay Ganesh!” like that. At that time, the Earth moved and the earthquake took away all of them inside the Earth itself. They all disappeared into Earth. Apart from that, there were many others also who were doing this kind of a thing [who] were taken into the Mother Earth. And our ashram was there, a kind of a centre, and around the centre there was a very beautiful land, but it did not touch that land. Around it, about at least quite a long distance, a big gap came in and there was an opening in the Mother Earth all around the centre, and nobody was harmed. They were all at home. They were all all right. But this happened, that our ashram was not at all touched. And this is how He saved the ashram and not a single Sahaja Yogi died. It is really very remarkable how the protection is given by Shri Ganesh and His ganas. So we must respect His ganas. It’s very important, is to see that they are all around within us, they are acting within us. They see us, what sort of person you are, and in case you try to dislodge Shri Ganesha by your misbehaviour, they try to see that you again go back to normal. They give you a chance many a times, but even then [if] you go on with your cunning and ideas about your ego, you are very badly hit by Him. And that is the biggest, I should say, calamity for you people. So you must worship Shri Ganesh. But I always say don’t worship every Shri Ganesh which is being created by those, we can say, artisans. Because God knows what sort of artisans they are. For money’s sake they might be making Ganesha and they might not have any idea of chastity. Such people make these Ganeshas and then you worship those Ganeshas, so we are not at all helped by this. That’s why Mohammad Saheb has said, “Don’t do any worship of any idol,” because these idols are created by human beings who are not authorized to do that. They are not swayambhus. They are not created by the Mother Earth but are copied by people who are just wanting to make money out of them. So that’s how any idol you get from the shops need not be worshipped. It’s not to be worshipped: any idol whatsoever. So whatever is not there, we should not worship because it’s made by somebody who has very bad vibrations, who is a cheat, who is very cunning and thinks no end of himself. With such a person if you buy a Shri Ganesha, it’s going to harm you, it’s not going to help you. You can have it for decoration in the house but not for worship. There is no photograph of the real Shri Ganesha so far. There are eight Shri Ganeshas who came out of Mother Earth. I have seen them. But in those places, the pujaris – the people who are the priests – are horrible, horrible people. I went to one of them and he said, “I am getting asthma, I am getting paralysis. How is it I am worshipping Shri Ganesha, my forefathers have worshipped the Shri Ganesha, and how He is doing this to me?” I said, “You just introspect yourself: what kind of a life you lead, what do you do, are you really worthy of Shri Ganesha’s pujari?” And then he realized it. I said, “I will cure you now. It’s all right. But afterwards you see to it that you become an innocent personality. Try to lead an innocent life, not of outwitting another and being very cunning and clever.” Shri Ganesha’s troubles are, really, I can’t count them even, how much it can hamper, how much it can give you trouble, how much it can take you nearer to your death. He is so powerful. He is so powerful. Because all of His energy is for the divine work of his Mother—all His energy. He doesn’t do anything, He doesn’t want anything. Just all His energy is for that. And He is asking for what is simple, what you can call modakas – a kind of a thing they make out of coconut. That’s what He eats. His body is so subtle and so, so powerful that He can move mountains after mountains. With His simplicity, with His sweetness, and with His innocence He can really change people. People who are very harsh can be changed. His symbol, as we have seen, is a swastika of the right direction. But if it is the other way round swastika, then that can destroy. When it was used by Hitler in the beginning, it was the right type and he was successful. But then what happened, they had stencils and they started using it from the other side. So it was from the left side it started – the other way round – and then they were all destroyed. How powerful is Shri Ganesha’s swastika, you can see. Also we have proved now that swastika, if you see from left to the right, is actually from the carbon atom. The carbon atom has got swastika. And the whole of this chakra is made of carbon atoms, all put in series. Now if you look at it from the left side – we have proved it now – if you look at it from the left side to right side, what you see is Omkar written. If you see it from right side to the left side, you see the swastik. And if you see from down below upward, then it looks like a cross. So, it proves that Shri Ganesha incarnated as Christ. And He is the one who is worshipped all over the world. It’s already written in the Devi Mahatmyam, if you read it, it’s all clearly written about Him: how He became an egg, and out of half of the egg became Christ and half of the egg was Shri Ganesha. All these things are there but we cannot understand it because we are confused. We don’t want to see it in a proper sense, that this is already written there. So those who worship Christ also worship Shri Ganesh. And whatever you say to Christ, you are saying it to Shri Ganesha. They are not two, they are one and absolutely, absolutely one with each other. All the things I have told you about Christ, you can try to find out and you will prove it. Like, Christ had these two fingers [index and middle fingers]. This means, one finger is for the Vishuddhi, as we say Shri Krishna, and this one is Vishnu’s, means this is his Father’s. That means his Father was Vishnu or Shri Krishna. Very clearly, He used to do. Why didn’t He do other fingers? Only these two fingers why did He use? Pointing out [skyward] towards His Father, who was Shri Vishnu and Shri Krishna. It’s easy to understand what I am saying if you see the vibrations of Shri Ganesh. If you see His vibrations and think of Him, you will be amazed that your Agnya will open out. You will become thoughtless, because He is the Jesus, He is on the Agnya, so it all opens out. And all the stupid ideas about breaking the Agnya and this and that is all neutralized, because you see for yourself: just the name of Shri Ganesh can open your Agnya. The cunningness that comes from Agnya is absolutely finished. You are no more cunning. When you see this innocence on your forehead, you are amazed at yourself, and all such ideas just disappear. You cannot think of something very cunning and harmful to others. You are completely changed when the Agnya is absolutely opened out. This one is a very big blessing to us, that we all have this Mooladhar Chakra now put into proper thing. When you sit on the ground also, it helps more because the Mother of Shri Ganesha is this Prithvi, is this Earth, the Mother Earth. And that’s why we should look after the Mother Earth. We don’t look after the Mother Earth. We don’t understand the value of Mother Earth. Actually, in Indian culture it is that, when you are getting up in the morning, you must say namaskar to the Mother Earth, saying that, “I bow to You, O Mother Earth because I am touching You with my feet.” Such respect you should have for Mother Earth, then you won’t exploit it, you won’t have today’s problems of pollution and this and that. It all comes out of our ignorance, that Mother Earth is the mother of Shri Ganesh, whose chakra we have got as Mooladhara. If you understand this, you will be able to understand what is to be done. The Mother Earth itself we should look after. We can glorify Her, we can beautify Her, we can do all kinds of things. But the way we are exploiting the Mother Earth is a wrong idea. Is very wrong, because it is harming us with pollution. To cut down the trees, to cut down everything that Mother has produced and just to use it for money is a very wrong thing. One should think about it, and when you cut one tree also you should put another one there. That is the beauty of the Mother Earth, all the greenery, everything is the beauty of the Mother Earth. Many people have no interest in the gardening or in the nature, no interest. I don’t know how they live, but they do, without taking any interest in the gardening or in the nature. Nature is so beautiful. Just look at the nature: it is never smelling, it’s never dirty. Every leaf is so organized that it should get the sun rays. There is no quarrel about it. They are so well organized, everything. It’s so beautiful, and it is never destroyed also by any animals. You’ll be amazed – the animals also don’t destroy. At the most, they might eat some grass or something, but normally animals do not destroy any tree, do not destroy anything as we destroy the Mother Earth for our own use. Whatever may be the cry for this, we have to understand that we have to respect the Mother Earth. Mother Earth is the Mother of Shri Ganesha, who is our, we should say, the eldest Sahaja Yogi. He never had to take yoga, but He is in yoga all the time. He is the greatest yogi we have. And the way He is doing right things all the time. He never does anything wrong, never. And He is so capable of getting to the position of any great Deity that is possible. I would say He is the greatest Deity we have. And we should really worship Him. Through Him, all Deities are worshipped and are made happy and blissful. So, today’s thing was that I was just thinking that nowadays, in modern times, how we have become shameless, how we have tried to put our chastity for kind of an honour. If we have any honour, you will have chastity. But you are dishonouring yourself and you think you have been very, very smart and modern by becoming so sinful. All the sinful act that is going on in these modern times is absolutely wrong and we should completely abhor it. You should go nowhere near because that’s all wrong and that’s how Shri Ganesha gets angry. Decency is very important in understanding what is our important basis: is our chastity. In India, you know, thirty-two thousand women got themselves burnt for saving their chastity. I come from the same family, and you can imagine what courage they must be having, what faith they must be having in their chastity, that: “If we lose our chastity, what’s the use of our life?” So they cared for their chastity and have done so much sacrifice to show that chastity is the most important thing we all should have. It’s not only for women but also for men—very much more for men, Shri Ganesha is a very important thing, because men can develop so many diseases if they do not respect Shri Ganesh. Our health would be the best if we look after Shri Ganesha, because He is all the time repairing our body. He is all the time looking after, protecting us. And our Shri Ganesha is in the Mooladhara. [He] is the one who is looking after our Kundalini, He’s protecting our Kundalini. If anything happens to us, the Kundalini comes up. But the one who supports Her, and keeps Her up, awakened, and standing is Shri Ganesha; He works it out. He is the one who is the protector of our Kundalini, which is also a basis of your Self-realization. So how much important is Shri Ganesha, you should know. And you should find out about yourself, introspect, that: “Are we really dedicated to Shri Ganesh? If we are, what are we doing about it?” Then you will develop a real hatred for all these dirty things. You’ll not like them, you’ll not like such people. That is how a Sahaja Yogi should work it out. The children are the best, as we know. Children are so sweet and so kind. They are so loving, so beautiful. In the same way, we should know Shri Ganesha is there. He is the one who is really innocent but extremely, extremely protective of you. Very much protective, with His innocence. So we should also try to cherish our innocence and not to feel hurt. Because sometimes such people are cheated, dominated, everything happens – doesn’t matter. They will all suffer, [those] who will dominate innocent people. In the whole world, you see there is a big uproar about it. People are talking about it, that there should not be domination of the innocent, simple people. It has happened, but it all has to be changed, has to be brought to some last end, otherwise people cannot exist. Like, everywhere they went and oppressed so many people. In America, I was surprised to see that there were so many Red Indians – who are called as “Indian Americans” – they were all oppressed. Oppressed so much that they had to run away to different places. And then I went to this place Canajoharie. I found the vibrations were so good. That means they were very innocent, simple people. And Americans that time, who went there, tried to completely finish them. So they went and hid in places like Canajoharie. But the Canajoharie has such tremendous vibrations that I said, “Look at this! So many years have passed, still the people who lived there or walked about and were absolutely enjoying this place were Red Indians” – the ones who were Indians, we call them American Indians. But they are so simple and innocent, and they were so, I think, spiritual people because they used to worship the Mother. The Mother, all the time. They worshipped the Mother. Even I have seen in other countries it has happened. But I was happy to see that in Australia they are very secular. They have many Maoris and all those people, and they encourage all of them, and it’s so surprising that they have so much talent. And they are bringing them to this state to show that they are equal in their rights, political rights, in Australia. It’s a very good venture. Now this Ganesha has appeared in Australia as Uluru. It’s a very big mountain which looks like Shri Ganesh. It has also a very big trunk, going down. But the vibrations itself will prove that it is Shri Ganesh, from the Mother Earth. He has appeared in many places, Shri Ganesh, not only there. But there, I felt [He] is really the source, source of vibrations. That’s what it is. And in Australia, I thank Him that because of Him only, Sahaja Yoga has worked so well and so easily. And the government also has never troubled us, or there has been no problem with them. I don’t know what is helping them, but perhaps it is the Shri Ganesha as Uluru which is protecting Sahaja Yoga there and it’s growing so much. In the same way, everywhere, wherever you may be, Shri Ganesha should be worshipped. And you will be helped, out and out, miraculously. You will be helped miraculously. But must do something about our chastity, which is Shri Ganesh. May God bless you.